The Costa Mesa Division Managers' Assn. may contribute almost 2% more into the state retirement fund if an agreement between the group and the city is passed during Tuesday's regular City Council meeting.

Five men charged with an armed invasion robbery of the Newport Coast home of former subprime mortgage lender Daniel Sadek are due to go on trial Monday.
The robbery, which reportedly took place during a weekly high-stakes poker game Sadek hosted, came...

COSTA MESA — Forced to choose between handing to the county the responsibilities for the city's affordable housing or creating a city-run housing agency, the City Council on Tuesday elected to keep the responsibility in-house.
The Costa Mesa...

Maria Elena Banks has come a long way from when she was a little girl growing up in Caracas, Venezuela, the descendant of a famous general and former president of Mexico.
In the U.S., she's gone from working to eke out a living in real estate as a...

Facing public opposition to building an apartment complex on the to-be-vacated City Hall property, the Newport Beach City Council agreed Tuesday night to study the feasibility of a hotel there instead.
The study, proposed by Councilman Keith Curry, will also examine housing options, such as condominiums and apartments.
As the city staff prepares to move across town to the under-construction Civic Center, the council is looking to approve a development that would replace City Hall. The publicly owned 4-...

Costa Mesa city officials have called an emergency meeting for Thursday to discuss a property tax payment the county claims the city owes.
The city has until Thursday to pay $1.4 million to the Orange County Auditor-Controller or it will be slapped with a 10% penalty, according to a letter sent to Costa Mesa's Housing Authority on Monday.
The money is owed from Costa Mesa's now-defunct Redevelopment Agency, which received property tax money from the RDA zone without it being siphoned through county...

I called Jean Forbath after her commentary ("Rent hikes at Bethel Towers will hurt seniors," July 10) appeared in the Daily Pilot and told her that she had drawn the wrong conclusions from staff writer Joseph Serna's article about the City Council's recent approval of tax-free bonds to renovate Bethel Towers.
As past chairman of the Orange County Housing Authority, I am very concerned with keeping affordable housing for our Costa Mesa seniors.
From the facts presented in the story, Forbath concluded...

Irvine Councilwoman Christina Shea's proposal to investigate and improve the housing situation for developmentally disabled residents drew applause — and unanimous approval — at Tuesday's meeting.
This "vulnerable group" does not receive adequate aid, and this was confirmed at a recent Community Land Trust meeting, Shea said.
"A group of residents did let us know that within Irvine, housing for the developmentally disabled is in short supply," she said. "And that affordable housing...

The Costa Mesa City Council on Tuesday is scheduled to consider approving a loan of up to $500,000 to help pay for permanent housing for the city's homeless population.
If approved by the council and the city's Housing Authority, which replaced the dissolved Redevelopment Agency, the amount would come from HOME funds that the city received in earlier years through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Money from the city's general fund could also be used.
The federal funds help "fund a...

The so-called lending pipeline that has been clogged for so long, considered by many a top reason for lackluster home sales, may get worse come October — or possibly sooner.
The federal government has decided the size of loans eligible for government backing will go down in October. That's a step back from a temporary hike made three years ago, when Congress raised the maximum loan guarantee that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and federal agencies aimed at boosting the beleaguered market.
That move three...